It was an exquisite marriage when Alison Krauss took the stage Friday night at the Chicago Theatre. Both artist and venue are class acts: Gorgeous, warm and built for longevity.
Krauss was on tour with Union Station, her long time backing band and a killer act in its own right. This tour is promoting their latest release, “Paper Airplane,” another fine venture in what Krauss and crew do so well: combining classic acoustic mountain music and exquisitely wrought modern chamber pop.
It’s a combination that packed the house, with an appreciative crowd one could assume was more given to tuning in to NPR than US95 (WUSN-FM, 99.5). Krauss and band are wicked good players, but their true genius is measured in their restraint. This is a crew that understands understated power, a “less is more” instrumental approach where every note is in service to the song.
Top-notch as the members of Union Station are on banjo, dobro, acoustic guitar and upright bass, there’s no escaping the fact that Krauss is the main event. Pretty in a pink maxidress and long tresses, she played her ax as both down-home fiddle and classic violin, depending on the song’s mood.
Krauss is a rare singer; like Willie Nelson, she can harmonize with anyone without losing her own trademark sound. As a solo vocalist, she’s a case study in the art of delicacy. She’s an arresting soprano with a slight quaver who can turn a song from sad to devastating in the turn of a phrase. Her approach is all the more lacerating, given that a great many of her songs traffic in broken hearts.
“Love conquers few,” she sang in a tremble on “Paper Airplane.” Like many of her heart songs (“Sinking Stone,” “Dimming of the Day”), it is a tune gently constructed around an aching melody.
But for all her delicacy, Krauss is no porcelain doll. She’s a warm and wickedly humored bandleader, cutting up between songs with the members of Union Station, and treating them more like kinfolk than band mates. A Champaign, IL. native, she gave an endearing shout-out to Illinois, “the land of my people.”
